That's a strange way to think about cover, just as a reduction in average damage. Sure, if both opponents were just fighting it out from cover to cover in the same way they do without cover, it'd be the same but slower. But cover opens up a more meaningful definition of flanking, and the strategies that come from that.
I think the most important thing to make cover dynamic is to make lots of cover movable or creatable through skills, rather than there only being static cover through map design. If all cover is static and it's mandatory to survive, that's how you get to cover mostly as a simple reduction in the damage.
I think I remember cover appearing in some pre-alpha footage somewhere. Can't remember if they had animations or anything for them already. Obviously every decision in game design involves sacrificing something else. I only bring up cover since they promised it in the kickstarter and I remember seeing it, and it does sound like it'd be fun to play with, but it's not a huge deal to me if they've scrapped it either.
